Young Shankara Defeats the Old Scholar

By Parmahamsa Hariharananda

Shankara was an extremely spiritual person, working day and night but never forgetting Him. By the age of 16 he had taken sannyas and was roaming all over India and founding ashrams in the four corners of India. At that time there was no plane, no train, no car, just bullock carts. So Shankara materialized four bodies and founded four maths (monasteries) simultaneously in the four corners of India - Sringeri in the South, Badrinatha in the North, Dwaraka in the West and Puri in the East. He entered mahasamadhi at the age of 32.

Once he went to debate a great scholar whose name was Mandana Mishra. It was decided that if Shankara won the debate, Mandana Mishra would renounce the world and become a sannyasin, and that if Mandana Mishra won, Shankara would renounce his monkhood and become a householder. The debate went on for several days and it appeared as if Shankara was winning. When Ubhay Bharati, Mandana Mishra's wife, saw that her husband was about to lose and have to renounce marital life, she requested Shankara to answer her questions as well before deciding who the winner would be. Shankara agreed. She asked "What are the various forms and expressions of love? What is the nature of sexual love? What is the effect of the waxing and waning moons on sex urge in men and women?" Shankara, being a young boy of 18 and a celibate monk, was not prepared for this kind of question, so he asked for some time before giving an answer, which was granted.

He then left with his disciples. In a nearby town they came upon a burning ground where king's body was just about to be cremated. Shankara, through his yogic power, entered the dead body who immediately came back to life and asked to be taken back to his palace and to his queen. In the meantime, Shankara's own lifeless body was hidden under some bushes at a little distance and watched over carefully by his disciples until he was to re-enter it again.

Shankara went to the king's palace, and his wife and servants and everyone were astonished and delighted by his "return." Shankara now spent all his time enjoying with his wife, and asking her so many questions. His wife was intrigued and asked "why do you ask so many questions all of a sudden?" So Shankara replied "I was almost dead and through God's grace came back to life again, but in the process I have lost my memory. So it is only normal that I should ask you all these questions." This answer satisfied the wife for a little while, but as her "husband" wanted to enjoy continuously with her, which he had never done before, she grew more and more suspicious that maybe an evil spirit had taken possession of her husband's body. So she sent her personal attendants to the cremation ground and to see whether they could find the body of someone who had recently died lying nearby. They went there and, having discovered Shankara's lifeless body, they snatched it and brought it back to the queen. A funeral pyre was constructed in the courtyard and Shankara's body was placed on top. The funeral pyre was lit. Meanwhile, Shankara's disciples were hiding and praying fervently to Shankara to come back to his body immediately. Shankara then left the king's body, re-entered his own body and immediately jumped down from the funeral pyre, having being just slightly burned on the leg. He left the town with his disciples.

Shankara now returned to debate Ubhay Bharati on sexual matters, and he easily won, having mastered in a few days all the arts of sexual love. Mandana Mishra and Bharati admitted defeat, and both became sannyasi and disciples of Shankara. Mandana Mishra remained in the ashram, and Ubhay Bharati took up residence in separate quarters. Mandana Mishra later headed one of the new monasteries founded by Shankara.

Shankara was very young, yet extremely spiritually advanced. If a person meditates very deeply in the fontanel by the practice of Kriya Yoga like him, then within a short period he can go to the fontanel. In the fontanel there is no negative, no money, no sex mood, no anger, no pride. By the practice of Kriya if one can reach the fontanel and remain there in their every breath—because breath is our life, our activity—by breath-control one will get self-control, and by breath-mastery one will get self-mastery. Shankara achieved self-mastery. Even as a young man, he became the top teacher in India. Sannyasins—people who are getting sannyas—attain this stage of Kriya.

Kriya Yoga is the foundation of all religions. It gives extreme calmness which is Godliness, freedom from material sense—there is no question of age. Kriya Yoga is the easiest, simplest technique—one is only to remain with 99% attention in the fontanel the whole day and night, watch the breath and watch Him. Then it is possible.

In this world many people are teaching many things but always by the five sense-organs. They get hallucinations, imagination, they speak high of themselves and commit many mistakes. In the Bible, Matthew 7:15, it is said "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. "And in Matthew 7:19 "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire." This is also found in the Upanishads: ''Living in the midsts of ignorance and considering themselves intelligent and enlightened, the senseless people go round and round, following crooked courses, just like the blind led by the blind." (Katha Upanishad 1:2:5). Also: "Remaining within the fold of ignorance and thinking, 'We are ourselves wise and learned', the fools, while being buffeted very much, ramble about like the blind led by the blind alone. Continuing diversely in the midst of ignorance, the unenlightened take airs by thinking, "We have attained the goal'. Since the men, engaged in karma, do not understand the truth under the influence of attachment, thereby they become afflicted with sorrow and are deprived of heaven on the exhaustion of the results o/karma." (Mundaka Upanishad 1:2:8-9)

So Kriya Yoga is a short-cut technique. In a moments time,
you can change your falsehood, you can change your extrovert stage
and go to the fontanel. Then you will be free from all negatives and
get constant liberation.

Anchor your body-boat in the fontanel, and you will never drift in the worldly ocean.

- Paramahamsa Hariharananda